Ministry of State Security (China)

This article is about the Chinese intelligence service. For other uses, see MSS (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Ministry of Public Security (China).
Ministry of State Security
国家安全部
Official seal of the MSS
Ministry overview
Formed1 July 1983; 41 years ago (1983-07-01)
Preceding agencies
  • Central Special Branch
  • Central Social Affairs Department
  • Central Investigation Department
TypeConstituent Department of the State Council
JurisdictionPeople's Republic of China including Hong Kong and Macau
HeadquartersYidongyuan, No. 100 Xiyuan, Haidian, Beijing, China[1][2]
39°59′32″N 116°16′42″E / 39.9921°N 116.2783°E / 39.9921; 116.2783
Motto"Serve the people firmly and purely, reassure the party, be willing to contribute, be able to fight hard and win"
Employees110,000 (estimated)
Minister responsible
Deputy Ministers responsible
  • Tang Dai
  • Shi Haoyong
  • Yuan Yiku
Ministry executive
  • Nie Furu, Head of Political Department
Parent organizationCentral National Security Commission
Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission
Child ministry
Websitewww.12339.gov.cn Edit this at Wikidata
Footnotes
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese国家安全部
Traditional Chinese國家安全部
Literal meaningState Security Ministry
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinGuójiā Ānquán Bù

The Ministry of State Security[a] (MSS) is the principal civilian intelligence, security and secret police agency of the People's Republic of China, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of the largest and most secretive intelligence organizations in the world, it maintains powerful branches at the provincial, city, municipality[b] and township levels throughout China.[2][3][4][5] The ministry's headquarters are Yidongyuan, in Beijing's Haidian district.

The origins of the MSS begin with the CCP's Central Special Branch, better known as the Teke, which was replaced by the Central Social Affairs Department (SAD) in 1936, which was in turn succeeded by the Central Investigation Department (CID) – the MSS's immediate predecessor – in 1955. In 1983 CID was merged with the counterintelligence elements of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to create the MSS.

The MSS is active in industrial and cyber espionage, where it has replaced the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as the country's most sophisticated and prolific advanced persistent threat actor.[6][7] It makes arrests through its own People's Police units and retains the authority to conduct extrajudicial court hearings.[8][9] The ministry has also been known to be involved in transnational repression, surveillance and harassment of dissidents abroad and influence operations targeting overseas Chinese diaspora in collaboration with the United Front Work Department. Today the agency is estimated to have at least 110,000 employees, with 10,000 directly attached to MSS headquarters and 100,000 spread across its dozens of provincial branches.

  1. ^ "国家税务总局关于国务院各部门机关后勤体制改革有关税收政策具体问题的通知" [Notice of the State Administration of Taxation on Specific Issues Concerning Taxation Policies Related to the Reform of the Logistics System of Departments and Organs of the State Council]. State Administration of Taxation. August 30, 2000. Archived from the original on 2024-09-02. 中央国家机关后勤改革享受税收政策汽车修理厂: １． 铁道部汽车修理厂（大兴县西红门）；２． 新华社新华汽车维修中心（海淀区四季青板井）；３． 国管局汽车修理厂（丰台区西五里店１７８号）；４． 外交部汽车修理厂（东城区外交部街丙31号）；５． 国家安全部行管局汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑１００号）；６． 国家安全部迅捷汽车修理厂（海淀区西苑甲１号对面）； [Central government agencies’ logistics institutions that benefit from tax policies in the category of auto shops: 1. Railway Ministry auto repair shop (Daxing County Xihongmen); 2. Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Auto Repair Center (Haidian District Sijiqing Banjing); 3. State Administration Bureau auto repair shop (Fengtai District Xiwulidian No. 178); 4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs auto repair shop (Dongcheng District Foreign Affairs Street C No. 31); 5. State Security Bureau Administration auto repair shop (Haidian District Xiyuan No. 100);]{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ a b Guo, Xuezhi (2012). "9 - The Intelligence Apparatus and Services under the People's Republic of China". China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 363. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139150897.010. ISBN 978-1-107-02323-9. The MSS headquarters was located where the previous CID was, at No. 100 Xiyuan, a location with tight security in the western suburbs of Beijing
  3. ^ Mattis, Peter (9 July 2017). "Everything We Know about China's Secretive State Security Bureau". The National Interest. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  4. ^ Eftimiades, Nicholas (2017-07-28). Chinese Intelligence Operations: Espionage Damage Assessment Branch, US Defence Intelligence Agency. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-24017-2. OCLC 1118472067. Archived from the original on 2020-08-23. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  5. ^ Mattis, Peter; Brazil, Matthew (2019-11-15). Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-304-7. OCLC 1117319580.
  6. ^ Perlroth, Nicole (2021-07-19). "How China Transformed Into a Prime Cyber Threat to the U.S." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-05-13. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  7. ^ Dilanian, Ken (October 9, 2018). "They're back: Chinese hackers are stealing from U.S. firms again". NBC News. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 2023-05-13. Dmitri Alperovitch said his firm is observing an increase in hacks by China's Ministry of State Security, which he says is far more adept and proficient than the People's Liberation Army, which previously had conducted most of the hacks into private Western companies. "That's troubling, because they've always been the better actor," he said.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :222 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Guo, Xuezhi (2012). China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-107-02323-9. Like the MPS, the MSS has a wide scope of authority in domestic intelligence activities, and that authority overlaps with the law enforcement responsibilities of the MPS. Thus, the MSS not only is involved in police functions (similar to the U.S. FBI) but also fulfills other roles, such as court hearings (akin to the role of the judiciary in Western democracies).


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